Racing, again excluding Thursday, will also be held Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18 beginning at 6:45 p.m.

Last Saturday, racing was temporarily suspended at Vernon Downs due to an equine herpes outbreak.

Five horses were tested for the virus. Three tested positive for Equine Herpes Virus Type 1, which can cause respiratory disease, abortion in broodmares, death in newborn foals and can also be a serious neurologic disease, according to the state Gaming Commission. The virus does not affect people.

One of the three horses was euthanized because the disease had advances to a point where it caused neurological damage. The horse reportedly had trouble walking.

On Wednesday, the remaining two infected horses were receiving treatment and were expected to recover, said Scott Warren, director of racing at Vernon Downs.

The infected horses were found Saturday morning, and track officials said they all came from the same trainer.

The state immediately implemented a quarantine, mandating that no horses will be permitted to ship in or out of the track until 28 days after the Department of Agriculture and Markets has determined that the infected horses stop showing symptoms of EHV-1.

Further, barns 4 and 2 at Vernon Downs are now under strict quarantine, and the only persons permitted to enter are horse caretakers assigned to those barns. Horses in those barns are prohibited from racing or training on the track. These barns will remain under strict quarantine until 28 days after the last signs of EHV-1 are seen in their populations.

The quarantine procedures can change as the state continues to monitor the situation.

There are currently about 400 horses at the track.

On Wednesday, Warren said that even though the quarantine remains in effect, the state gave the track the go-ahead to resume racing with the unaffected horses currently housed at the track, Warren said.

Warren added that because more horses could not come onto the track, Vernon Downs needed to cancel the next two Thursday night racing events because there are not enough horses.

Equine herpes is spread by simple contact from horse to horse, or by humans touching an infected horse and moving on to touch others. In the case of the infected horses at Vernon Downs, the virus seemed like a typical cold until the horses displayed a fever that continually spiked above 101 degrees.